Martin Luther (steam locomotive)

Martin Luther is an 8 NHP Compound J & H McLaren steam-driven traction engine Works No 527 built in November 1895 in Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK and abandoned in the desert of Skeleton Coast outside of the town of Swakopmund in Namibia, ca.

The "Road Locomotive" was brought to German South-West Africa by First Lieutenant Edmund Troost of the Schutztruppe for use for freight service between Swakopmund and the interior of the country, for which ox wagons had been used.

[1] At the beginning of 1897, due to incorrect handling, the engine ground to a halt about 4 km outside of Swakopmund, and was abandoned there.

A local resident Max Rhode is said to have said in a gathering in the Bismarck Hotel the following words: “Did you know that the steam ox is called ‘Martin Luther’ now because it can also say — ‘Here I stand, I can do no other’”.

Thus the engine gained its present name, although recent scholars have doubts as to whether Luther ever did utter these words.